[Injuries of the rectum in children. 79 cases]

The observations of 79 patients with rectal or ano-rectal lesions were studied in 15 centers, on a 25 years period. The etiology of the lesions was: 23 patients which suffered from traffic road accident, 39 patients which suffered from impaling, 10 patients with lesions caused by foreign bodies, 6 patients which suffered sexual violence and 1 patient with other causes. The primary results were: 2 patients who died, and 27 patients who suffered from other complications. 19 of them were of infectious nature and the other 6 suffered from urethral-rectal or vaginal-rectal fistula. The secondary results showed that 28 patients developed early complications and 1 patient developed late complications. The majority of the complication were: 9 anal stenosis and 11 were anal sphincter incompetence. The analysis of the results showed the factors implicated in the appearance of these complications, which were: the initial unknown nature of the lesions in the polytraumatised patients, the nature of the lesions, the associated lesions of the sphincter or the perineum, the late diagnosis and the factors which increase the risk of an early infection.